2008 Film Comment's Critics Poll

[oscar jubis]

TOP 20 RELEASED


1. Wendy and Lucy_ Kelly Reichardt, U.S. 580
2. Flight of the Red Balloon_ Hou Hsiao-hsien, Taiwan/France 564
3. A Christmas Tale_ Arnaud Desplechin, France 557
4. Happy-Go-Lucky_ Mike Leigh, U.K. 538
5. WALL·E_ Andrew Stanton, U.S. 534
6. Still Life_ Jia Zhang-ke, Hong Kong/China 521
7. Paranoid Park_ Gus Van Sant, France/U.S. 465
8. Waltz with Bashir_ Ari Folman, Israel/France/Germany 424
9. My Winnipeg_ Guy Maddin, Canada 406
10. Milk_ Gus Van Sant, U.S. 356
11. Let the Right One In_ Tomas Alfredson, Sweden 351
12. The Duchess of Langeais_ Jacques Rivette, France/Italy 335
13. The Class_ Laurence Cantet, France 334
14. Synecdoche, New York_ Charlie Kaufman, U.S. 297
15. Hunger_ Steve McQueen, U.K. 289
16. Silent Light_ Carlos Reygadas, Mexico/France/Netherlands 286
17. Ballast_ Lance Hammer, U.S. 283
18. Man on Wire_ James Marsh, U.K. 282
19. The Exiles_ Kent Mackenzie, U.S. 257
20. Gomorrah_ Matteo Garrone, Italy 253

TOP 20 UNRELEASED

1. The Headless Woman_ Lucrecia Martel, Argentina/Spain/France/Italy 201
2. 24 City_ Jia Zhang-ke, China/Hong Kong/Japan 171
3. Summer Hours_ Olivier Assayas, France 154
4. Still Walking_ Hirokazu Kore-eda, Japan 102
5. Tulpan_ Sergey Dvortsevoy, Germany/Switzerland/Kazakhstan/Russia/Poland 84
6. RR_ James Benning, U.S. 83
7. 35 Shots of Rum_ Claire Denis, France/Germany 78
8. Of Time and the City_ Terence Davies, U.K. 76
9. Tony Manero_ Pablo Larrain, Chile/Brazil 74
10. Liverpool_ Lisandro Alonso, Argentina 70
11. Sugar_ Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck, U.S. 55
12. Tokyo Sonata_ Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Japan/Netherlands/Hong Kong 51
13. Birdsong_ Albert Serra, Spain 48
14. The Hurt Locker_ Kathryn Bigelow, U.S. 47
15. United Red Army_ Koji Wakamatsu, Japan 40
16. Night and Day_ Hong Sang-soo, South Korea 36
17. Four Nights with Anna_ Jerzy Skolimowski, France/Poland 33
18. Me and Orson Welles_ Richard Linklater, U.K. 31
19. Il Divo_ Paolo Sorrentino, Italy/France 29
20. Chouga_ Darezhan Omirbaev, Kazakhstan/France

[Chris Knipp]

Their Top 20 Released list is excellent. I really like it. I didn't know HUNGER was released--good news because I want to include it If SILENT LIGHT and STILL LIFE were US 2008 releases, then I'll have to put them in my list. I am going to include RACHEL GETTING MARRIED, I think. Also SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE. I won't include MY WINNEPEG, THE DUCHESS OF LANGEAIS, and I might include FROST/NIXON. I separate English and other languages into two lists.

To judge by Metacritic ratings, conspicuous omissions here besides RACHEL GETTING MARRIED (82) and SLUMDOG (86), TROUBLE THE WATER (83), U2 3D (83) and LET THE RIGHT ONE IN (82), as well as FROST/NIXON (79) and THE WRESTLER (78), which all have Academy Award possibilities.

It's funny with all the good documentaries everybody lists MAN ON WIRE. But it's my favorite too; I just want to list more. Since TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE was reviewed in 2008 I will include it in my Best Documentaries list, and as I've said I think it's more sifnificant than S.O.P.

The Unreleased list I don't like so well. I thought CHOUGA was terrible, and many of the others not up to par. I like SUMMER HOURS and TULPAN. TONY MANERO is hard to get out of your head. I have not seen a lot of these, 6,7,8,10,13,14,15,18,19.

This excludes most of the late December Oscar bait releases, indicating (I think maybe accurately) that this December is a disappointment for serious moviegoers in America. BENJAMIN BUTTON, DOUBT, REVOLUTIONARY ROAD, THE READER, But criticsl reports on those are only so-so, and the NYTimes's Dargis called THE READER "this fatuous film." I'm still looking forward to seeing them and GRAN TORINO; there's not much else to look forward to this year.

I also don't see any blockbuster comic book masterpieces. No IRON MAN, no DARK KNIGHT. Which is fine with me, but they got good press (IRON MAN: Metacritic 79; THE DARK KNIGHT, 82).

[oscar jubis]

What I value about lists like this one is that it gives me a list of films that I wouldn't want to miss; films that demand that I experience them and form an opinion. I also like to chack on the individual lists (which will be made available later) of critics whose points of view and personalities I find interesting.
It's hard to figure whether the critics had already seen films you mention such as REVOLUTIONARY ROAD and BENJAMIN BUTTON when the deadline to submit ballots came, or not. The other poll I use as a guide as to what not to miss is the IndieWIRE poll. That one gives critics a couple of extra weeks to submit their ballots. Maybe some of these newer titles will be included in the IndieWIRE poll. Maybe not.

*You list LET THE RIGHT ONE IN as a conspicuous omission but it made the Film Comment list at #11.

*I have only a vague idea about what my lists will look like because I'll watch a lot of movies between now and the end of February, when I make my lists. I know I will include many films that don't make it into group polls like this one because few critics saw them (or because they don't conform to general concepts of good taste?). As an example, consider CHOP SHOP which received an 83 from Metacritic. An how about my beloved OPERA JAWA, which was released on January 8th in New York and everyone seems to have completely forgotten by now (assuming enough critics cared to see it).

[Chris Knipp]

My mistake about LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, right there in the no. 11 spot! Can I use my declining eyesight as an excuse? Indeed these lists are a good way of finding out what one may need to catch up on, as you've remarked in previous years. I already wanted to see the Cannes winner IL DIVO, which was omitted from the NYFF in favor of GOMORRAH. Going by names of directors I've liked in the past I'll want to see 4,7,10, and 14, for Koreeda, Alonso, Bigelow and Linklater. I may like some of the other directors on my unseen list and be unaware of it.

I don't know about press screenings of BENJAMIN BUTTON, DOUBT, REVOLUTIONARY ROAD and THE READER either, though it would surprise me if nobody polled had seen a single one of them. They don't seem to have made top rankings with critics to judge again by Metacritic (REVOLUTIONARY ROAD 77, BENJAMIN BUTTON 77, DOUBT 70, THE READER 55). That wouldn't keep them off some critic's best lists, and anyway ROAD and BUTTON have solid ratings, but THE READER got generally panned so many could be expected to omit it.

Am I missing something again or is FROZEN RIVER not on the Film Comment list? It won the best first film prize at the New York Film Critics Awards, and Cruz got best supporting for VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA and SLUMDOG for cinematography. FROZEN RIVER has a Metacritic 82 rating, so it would qualify as a conspicuous omission, like SLUMDOG and several others, which I have already mentioned.

One I am sure few saw, which I prefer to CHOP SHOP myself, is Sean Baker and Shih-Ching Tsou's TAKE OUT. And you're right, CHOP SHOP has a Metacritic 83 and so is another c.o. Not to mention the fact that the absence of RACHEL GETTING MARRIED, SLUMDOG, TROUBLE THE WATER, FROST/NIXON, and THE WRESTLER is inexplicable. If nobody had seen those then, the poll was done too soon, to make a magazine deadline.

[oscar jubis]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Chris Knipp
Can I use my declining eyesight as an excuse?
I've been using reading glasses for two years and about to need regular glasses to see anything well that's within five feet from my eyes.

Indeed these lists are a good way of finding out what one may need to catch up on, as you've remarked in previous years.
Sorry I repeat myself. I've been pretty consistent in my approach to lists and awards. I also value how they direct general attention to some films that deserve it.


Am I missing something again or is FROZEN RIVER not on the Film Comment list? It won the best first film prize at the New York Film Critics Awards, and Cruz got best supporting for VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA and SLUMDOG for cinematography. FROZEN RIVER has a Metacritic 82 rating, so it would qualify as a conspicuous omission, like SLUMDOG and several others, which I have already mentioned.
I think it's safe to say these films were seen by critics and didn't get enough Top 10 mentions to make it into the general list. Same goes for Rachel and Trouble the Water. Revolutionary Road and Button are more recent and perhaps would chart if deadline was extended. What about CHE?

I have TAKE OUT on my wish list. It didn't play here and it's not on dvd. Perhaps my friend Kal can download it for me. I missed some interesting films that did play here: MY WINNIPEG and I'VE LOVED YOU SO LONG among them.

[Chris Knipp]

I don't think having to move from drugstore reading glasses to prescription ones puts you in the same category. What I have wrong with both eyes are not problems any glasses can fix. However I was joking; my oversight was carelessness, not poor vision.

No harm in your repeating yourself. We all do. We all need to. Your values and program are consistent indeed. and that's fine.

Indeed what about CHE? I thought of that after my earlier entries. It isn't a wholehearted success but it's a unique production worthy of inclusion in some lists surely. I mentioned VICKY CRISTINA because it is making lists, and Cruz is getting nominations. SLUMDOG is bound to make lists. I'm not condemning the FILM COMMENT poll, just pointing out these differences from what might come up in other polls. I don't think I'm alone in liking RACHEL and thinking it's one of the ten or 20 with a firm place on my 2008 English and American best list, along with BALLAST and a couple of others I will hold off mentioning a while longer. You always make up your annual list later than I do for several reasons. I may get to see more new films, and you are more responsible and diligent in seeking to see all you think you must consider. I am just getting to see a larger selection of the new films than I could when I started on Filmwurld five years ago.

TAKE OUT is a very rare item. It took them years even to get theatrical showings. I was lucky to be at the theater when the filmmakers did a Q&A, which often happens at Cinema Village and Quad Cinema for small independent films with NYC-resident makers. MY WINNEPEG probably didn't run long even here in the Bay Area, but I LOVED YOU SO LONG got a good long run in the East Bay at the Landmark Albany Twin, which tends to run its films long. The Bay Area and Penninsula have a lot of Landmark cinemas as you may know. I don't even know quite how many . And NYC has only one, the Sunshine. It's weird, but in NYC there is a lot of important competition such as the two I just mentioned, Film Forum and the IFC Center, MoMA, Two Boots Pioneer, and on and on.

[cinemabon]

This is beginning to sound like the country for old men...

[Chris Knipp]

Really? Why?

By the way another title I meant to mention is THE VISITOR, which seems such a sterling film, though it has slight weaknesses, and may not hold up against the heavy hitters.

[oscar jubis]

cinemabon is right :) Obviously he is referring to our mention of our vision problems.
I like THE VISITOR a lot. I like it about as much as MILK, more than VICKY and FROST/NIXON and a lot more than SLUMDOG.
I can't wait to watch CHE (opens here Jan 2nd)

[cinemabon]

Gentlemen... some how we survived to write for another year. Happy New Year... invest in invisible bifocals, dye your hair and live like your thirty... for another year. This one's in the books.

[oscar jubis]

Well said. HAPPY NEW YEAR y'all!! Have a Happy 2009!!

[oscar jubis]

The major changes compared to FILM COMMENT poll are: SILENT LIGHT moving up from 16th to 8th and WENDY AND LUCY down from the top to 4th. (I love the former, haven't seen the latter). SYNECHDOCHE moves into the Top 10 in the new list. I was very impressed upon first viewing but it's just not a film one should form a firm judgement after a single viewing.

# BEST FILM Points Mentions

1 The Flight of the Red Balloon 495 /43
2 A Christmas Tale 454 /38
3 WALL-E 368 /32
4 Wendy and Lucy 366 /36
5 Happy-Go-Lucky 346 /31
6 Paranoid Park 335 /31
7 Still Life 330 /31
8 Silent Light 310 /26
9 Synecdoche, New York 290 /25
10 Waltz with Bashir 283 /27
11 Rachel Getting Married 267 /24
12 In the City of Sylvia 256 /22
13 My Winnipeg 248 /27
14 Let the Right One In 237 /22
15 Milk 205 /20
16 The Edge of Heaven 203 /17
17 Hunger 198 /19
18 The Wrestler 192 /19
19 Ballast 177 /17
20 Man on Wire 165 /16

[Johann]

Hou is a genius.
With every passing day this becomes more apparent.
Three Times is an absolute epoch in my viewing travels and will always be. I'm sad to say I haven't yet seen The Flight of the Red Balloon, but I know in my heart of hearts that it is among those that belong in the pantheon.

Hou Hsiao-Hsien is a Master of the first rank. Pure poetry.
It doesn't surprise me that he's at the top of your list.

Maddin's My Winnipeg just won a $10,000 prize here in Canada for cultural significance and why haven't I seen WALL*E yet?

Thanks for this list Oscar.
Important stuff.

[oscar jubis]

Hou is a genius. Perhaps the best director of his generation. I mean worldwide! FLIGHT OF THE RED BALLOON is lighter and simpler than THREE TIMES and any of the four masterpieces Hou released in the 1990s. It's still Hou even if set in Paris and starring Juliette Binoche, but it's a more accessible Hou, one that can be completely grasped on a single viewing. Don't expect the same level of density and layering of modes of representation and meaning of THREE TIMES.

I could kick myself for missing MY WINNIPEG when it played here. It's out on dvd in Canada and the UK but not here. One can watch it on-line for about $3 on various websites. Which is what I plan to do if the dvd is not released here within the month.

Don't miss WALL-E!

[Chris Knipp]

National Society of Film Critics Awards 2008

Saturday January 03rd 2009, 10:25 pm
[From Dave Kehr's website http://www.davekehr.com/?m=200901]

"The * designates the winning entity, with the number of votes and the distributor following the title:"

BEST ACTOR
*1. Sean Penn (Milk) – 87 (Focus Features)
2. Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler)- 40
3. Clint Eastwood (Gran Torino)– 38

BEST ACTRESS
*1. Sally Hawkins (Happy-Go-Lucky) - 65 (Miramax)
2. Melissa Leo (Frozen River) - 33
3. Michelle Williams (Wendy and Lucy) - 31

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
*1. Eddie Marsan (Happy-Go-Lucky) 41 (Miramax)
2. Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight) – 35
3. Josh Brolin (Milk) – 29

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
*1. Hanna Schygulla (The Edge of Heaven) – 29 (Strand Releasing)
2. Viola Davis (Doubt) – 29 (on fewer ballots)
3. Penelope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona) – 24

BEST PICTURE
*1. Waltz with Bashir (Ari Folman) – 26 (Sony Pictures Classics)
2. Happy-Go-Lucky 20
2. WALL-E (20)

BEST DIRECTOR
*1. Mike Leigh (Happy-Go-Lucky) – 36 (Miramax)
2. Gus Van Sant (Milk, Paranoid Park) – 20
3. Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire) -16

BEST NONFICTION FILM
*1. Man on Wire (James Marsh) – 55 (Magnolia)
2. Trouble the Water (Tia Lessin and Carl C. Deal) – 34
3. Encounters at the End of the World (Werner Herzog) – 26

BEST SCREENPLAY
*1. Happy-Go-Lucky (Mike Leigh) – 29
2. A Christmas Tale (Arnaud Desplechin) – 24
3. Synecdoche, New York (Charlie Kaufman) – 17

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
*1. Slumdog Millionaire (Anthony Dod Mantle) – 29 (Fox Searchlight)
2. Flight of the Red Balloon (Lee Ping-Bing) – 22
3. The Dark Knight (Wally Pfister) – 18
4. Still Life (Yu Lik-Wai )

BEST EXPERIMENTAL FILM – Ken Jacobs’ Razzle Dazzle.

[cinemabon]

Thanks Chris

[Chris Knipp]

Welcome. I hope you and everybody will put their 2008 favorites lists up on the thread Oscar just started.

[Chris Knipp]

Taking this to be the thread for Other People's lists (not Filmleaf people's)-- The VILLAGE VOICE POLL for 2008 movies (http://www.altfg.com/blog/awards/best-films-of-2008-la-weekly-village-voice/) is out now.
1. WALL-E (237 points, 35 mentions)
2. The Flight of the Red Balloon (163 points, 26 mentions)
3. Happy-Go-Lucky (159 points, 26 mentions)
4. Still Life (147 points, 23 mentions)
5. A Christmas Tale (146 points, 24 mentions)
6. Waltz with Bashir (140 points, 22 mentions)
7. Milk (123 points, 21 mentions)
8. Wendy and Lucy (122 points, 25 mentions)
9. Let the Right One In (above, 113 points, 20 mentions)
10. Synecdoche, New York (106 points, 18 mentions) J. Hoberman starts out his roundup statement (http://www.laweekly.com/2009-01-01/film-tv/film-poll-2008-wall-e-world/1) (that link will take you to the whole thing) sort of like me (http://www.chrisknipp.com/writing/viewtopic.php?t=1204) :
Unlike last year, when Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood materialized in late December to snatch the prize from the Coen Brothers' No Country for Old Men and David Fincher's Zodiac, there was no groupthink stampede. Critics had months in which to cogitate over the eventual poll winner. Pass the popcorn, not the ammunition: While last year's top films were characterized by murderous violence, WALL-E radiated hope. The new optimism was also manifest in Mike Leigh's Happy-Go-Lucky, which, boasting a relentlessly upbeat performance by Sally Hawkins, finished a close third in the poll just behind Hou Hsiao-hsien's relatively cheerful The Flight of the Red Balloon, as well as Gus Van Sant's ultra-inspirational political biopic, Milk (No. 7). I think this year is less exciting than last, but there are some solid offerings. I wouldn't say there was a "stampede." I think the excitement was justified. It would be easier to do the kind of summary about sunny vs. negative etc. if i were more convinced what the "top films" are. Some of my favorites are really in other categories of less seen or unseen films. Nonetheless Hoberman as usual has many keen observations, such as his remarks about WENDY AND LUCY--it doesn't inspire love, but one does admire it--and his analysis of the lists by a "Passiondex" showing not what just scored on most lists but what people most cared for. But this list, SILENT LIGHT and RACHEL GETTING MARRIED score high, but WALL-E is the top of both majority-rule and "Passiondex" lists. and LA FRANCE also comes in.

I am glad to see BALLAST listed as best first film. A good choice I think. I have not seen THE LOVE GURU but I'll take other people's word gladly on what the worst film of the year is, any time. I saw FOUR NIGHTS WITH ANNA (NYFF). It's heavy going but unique, maybe a bit like Bela Tarr?

[cinemabon]

I am flabbergasted by the overwhelming vote for "Wall-e." I loved the little morality tale about over indulgence and waste. However... Best Picture of the Year? Certainly the message is topical. Or did we have this discussion alread?

Thanks for the list.